3 minute read

Justin Snaith has forged clear in his bid to become the first Western Cape trainer since Terrance Millard in 1990 to win South Africa’s national trainer’s championship.

However with the championship decided by prizemoney won the two chasers Geoff Woodruff and Sean Tarry are not of contention as look to the rich Vodacom Durban July day to close the gap.

Snaith, with stakes earnings of more than R16 million, is now more than R2 million clear of Woodruff and almost R3 miliion ahead Tarry.

The story is in the numbers as Snaith has had a massive 855 more runners than Woodruff although their strike rates are almost the same.

Snaith's 1158 runners have yielded 175 winners at a strike rate of 15,11%. His average number of winners per month is just under 17 and has put him on the cusp of becoming the first ever trainer to reach 200 winners in a season aftrer falling just two short last season.

Last year he smashed Woodruff's record of 174 wins by sending out 198 winners.

Woodruff has only had 303 runners this season for 48 winners. His multiple G1 winning pair Yorker and Louis The King have together earned more than half of the yard's total stakes money.

Tarry has had 964 runners for 131 winners at a strike rate of 13,59%.

It remains to be seen which runners Tarry will have in the R3.5 million Vodacom Durban July.

Whiteline Fever is likely to be included as his fifth in the G1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge should keep him among the top 16 on the July log but stablemates Halve The Deficit and previous Durban July winner Pomodoro remain borderline cases.

Snaith has a strong hand in the July with dual G1 winners Legislate and The Fast Lane.

However his July runner up from last year Run For It doesn't look to have done enough to warrant inclusion in the final field this year.

Woodruff has a strong July hand with his Triple Crown hero Louis The King and the G1 Daily News runner up Rake’s Chestnut.

The importance of the July to the trainers championship race is vital as the first prizemoney is R2,093,750 with R670,000 for second R335,000 for third down to R30,000 for finishing in the top 10.

Durban July also features three other G1 races - the R750,000 Province Stakes, R600,000 Golden Horseshoe and R600,000 Golden Slipper – plus the G2 R500,000 Gold Vase, G3 3 R500,000 Campanajo and R1 million KZN Yearling Sale Million.

Snaith and Tarry have stronger hands in these races than Woodruff.

Tarry has a good chance of winning the Golden Slipper with the highly promising G1 winner Carry On Alice although Snaith rates his entry Eros's Girl highly.

In the Golden Horseshoe Tarry has the unbeaten Captain Clipper, the improving Kapitan and the unexposed Trip To Heaven, a half-brother to G1 winner The Hangman.

Snaith has the G2 winner Harry Lime in the Golden Horseshoe and is the only one of the three trainers with a qualifier in the top 30 for the KZN Yearling Sale Million.

Before July day the KZN Breeders Million Mile on June 29 could also be vital as Tarry is the only of the top three trainers with runners.

The finale to the championship may well be July 26 when the features include the R1,25 million G1 Gold Cup, the R1 million G1 Champions Cup, the R600,000 G1 Premier's Champions Stakes, the R600,000 G1 Thekwini and the R350,000 G2 Gold Bracelet.